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The SG objected to the plea stating that many facts have been wilfully suppressed before the court. He submitted that a court in Sitapur had dismissed his bail plea in the case in the morning of July 7, however, in an affidavit filed in the evening, it was not revealed.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Friday while objecting to the grant of interim bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, argued that the police are not investigating just one tweet, but his overall conduct.
Court was hearing a plea by Zubair challenging Allahabad High Court’s order refusing to quash the First Information Report (FIR) lodged against him over his tweet. Zubair had allegedly called Bajrang Muni a 'hate monger' and insulted Yati Narsinghanand and Anand Swaroop in his tweets.
The SG objected to the plea by stating that many facts have been wilfully suppressed before the court. He submitted that a court in Sitapur had dismissed his bail plea in the case in the morning of July 7, however, in an affidavit filed in the evening, it was not revealed. SG argued that the court should not tolerate such a conduct. He further informed the court that the order refusing to grant bail to Zubair might have been set aside by the court without even being challenged.
Appearing for the State of Uttar Pradesh, the SG said, “ This is not the question of one tweet. The investigation is whether he is a part of a syndicate which put such tweets just to create disturbance in the society.” He argued that despite claiming that he runs a fact checking website, Zubair chose to suppress many facts in the plea. SG further argued that there is a money angle to the case. He informed that the company, in which Zubair is a director, might be receiving donations from countries which are not in favourable terms with India.
The SG informed the court that after Zubair’s ‘hate mongers' tweet, there was a law and order situation in the area. It was SG’s argument that while the speech made by the above mentioned persons could be classified as hate speech, the timing of Zubair’s tweets about such instances, just to provoke people, was troublesome.
Regarding the timing of the plea before Supreme Court, the SG said, “The order of Allahabad High Court is of June 10. The appeal was filed on June 15. However it was mentioned yesterday for urgent hearing just to create an artificial emergency!”
ASG Raju’s arguments:
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the investigating officer in the case, argued that Zubair’s intention behind tweeting such instances is only to incite violence. It was his submission that he has hurt the feelings of Bajrang Muni, a popular religious figure in the area. The ASG alleged that the plea has been filed to ensure that officers don’t go to Bangalore to seize evidence.
The ASG said, “If his intention was to stop hate speech, why put it on social media? He should have gone to the police directly.”
The Top Court granted an interim bail to Mohammed Zubair. It was however clarified that the bail pertains only to Sitapur FIR and no other case.
Case title: Mohammed Zubair Vs State of UP
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